Lit Bits: Cover Art Revealed for China Mieville’s Railsea
China Mieville’s new novel, Railsea, now has a cover: I like it. What do you all think?
Strange Chemistry: Angry Robot’s New YA Imprint!
There’s not much to say about this that AR‘s press release doesn’t cover — except to say that Strange Chemistry sounds like an amazing YA project! Here’s the release: Angry Robot, the award-winning publisher of SF, F and WTF are pleased to announce their newest venture – a sister imprint, Strange Chemistry, which will publish Young Adult genre fiction. The imprint will launch in September 2012, with five titles appearing before the end of that year, before settling down to one book each month. Strange Chemistry will follow AR’s strategy of co-publishing its books simultaneously in the US and UK, in both eBook and paperback formats. Subject matter will include fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror, and as with Angry Robot the lines between those genres are likely to be very blurry at times. Running the imprint will be Amanda Rutter, until recently best known as the tireless blogger behind genre review site, Floor-to-Ceiling Books. She takes up her position in Angry Robot’s headquarters in Nottingham on December 12th. Angry Robot’s managing director Marc Gascoigne said: “The key to any truly successful genre imprint is the personality of its editors. In Amanda we’ve found the perfect mix of editing skills and wild, wild enthusiasm for the subject. Her first signings are already making us jump up and down in excitement. We’re beyond delighted to welcome her to the team.” Amanda Rutter commented: “Angry Robot have quickly become one of the most exciting and challenging genre publishers around, and I have so much admiration for the types of novels that the guys are bringing to the world of speculative fiction. I’m absolutely thrilled that I have the opportunity to join the team, and create a list full of Young Adult novels that share the same sharpness and passion as those in the AR list.” Congratulations to Amanda Rutter for heading this new project! And a quick note to Angry Robots: keep it up, because you might get yourself yet another WISB Award!
Lit Bits: Angry Robot Signs Two “Open Door Month” Authors
Here’s the press release: Like most successful publishers, Angry Robot generally only accepts submissions through literary agencies. Earlier this year, however, the company ran a pilot programme to see how many unpublished – but talented – authors there were without representation. During March, Angry Robot invited all un-agented authors to submit completed manuscripts as part of an “Open Door Month”. Over 990 novels were submitted during that period. Today, Angry Robot are delighted to announce the first acquisitions from the first Open Door Month. Two new authors,
Episode 74 — An Interview w/ Michaele Jordan (a.k.a. Queen Succubus Prime)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow6.1–AnInterviewWMichaeleJordana.k.a.Queen/Sandf–Episode6.1–AnInterviewWMichaeleJordan.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThat’s right: the basketball player is here to talk about…books? Yeah, we’ll go with that. Of course, that would be a terrible lie. The truth of it is that Michaele Jordan, author of Mirror Maze from Pyr, is here to talk about demons, Victorian horror pulps, the nature of names, mysticism, and so much more. If you’re a closet Victorian, or someone who simply likes poking fun at Victorian morality, then you need to listen to this episode. If not, then you need to listen anyway. Why? Because we said so. Go on. Click play… All joking aside, we hope you enjoy the episode and will check out Mirror Maze. Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 74 — Download (MP3) Intro and Interview w/ Michaele Jordan (0:00 – 45:01) Michaele’s Website Michaele’s Facebook Mirror Maze! Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 List: Alex Bledsoe is on it!
Remember way back in May when we interviewed Alex Bledsoe? No? Well go back in time and listen, because we’re totally taking credit for the fact that our lovely Bledsoe is on the Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 list (with The Hum and the Shiver). Congrats, Alex! We knew you were brilliant, we just didn’t expect you to grow up so fast…
Join the Crew: We Want Contributors and Souls
The Skiffy and Fanty Show is changing. Sorta. We’ll keep doing the things you all love — interviewing amazing authors, discussing news and topics of interest to the SF/F/H community, and reviewing crappy movies (and books) selected (usually) by you — but we also want to expand. That’s where all of you come in. We’re looking to expand our content by adding contributors. What are we looking for? Reviewers We get a too many books for Jen and I to read, and that makes us feel bad. Really. That’s why we want to add some reviewers for the show. If you’re interested in getting a free book in exchange for a review, send us an email! So far, we’ve got one taker, but there are plenty more books to be read! We’re also interested in movie reviews. If you’re a nut for SF/F/H movies and want to review them here, we want you like a rodent wants a piece of cheese. Contributors Jen is running for President and I’m trying to get a PhD. so I can wear suits and bother undergraduates for the rest of my life. That means, with all our other online and real-life engagements, Jen and I can’t fill up this blog the way we’d like. And when it comes right down to it, we shouldn’t. You learn a lot about what we think by listening to the show. We want new voices. New ideas. New humorous reviews based on the book cover. New ?s of the Week. And even new features altogether. If you’ve got an idea, or if you’d like to occasionally blog about major things happening in the SF/F/H community, let us know. All it takes is your soul, two gallons of Red Stripe, and a pack of gum. See? We’re not that demanding… Guest Posts (from authors, filmmakers, etc.) We’re interested in guest posts for two reasons: 1) we can’t read or review everything we get in the “mail,” and 2) we think it’s a wonderful thing to hear what authors have to say about their interactions with the genre. As such, we’re interested in guest posts on all kinds of genre-related subjects. See the Contact page for more information on that. Those three things don’t really cover the range of possibilities — so if you have an idea and want to contribute it to this site, send us an email at skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks for reading and listening! Here’s to a very interesting month-ish of 2011.
